With the spread of the Internet, it has become common to conduct various transactions on the Internet, including music distribution. In the music distribution, a lot of music contents are stored in a server, and music contents requested by a user are downloaded to a terminal of that user with charge. The downloaded musical pieces can be played back by a personal computer or by a portable music playback terminal. Several music distribution sites have now been established that distribute music contents with a price of several hundreds yen per piece. Since this price is considerably lower than that of a single CD, and the music contents can be electronically stored and handled in a convenient way, it is expected that the music distribution will become ever more popular.
While various genres of music, such as classics, pop, popular ballads, latin and rock, can be downloaded from a music distribution site, users, especially young users, would exhibit a strong preference for the latest hit songs. Therefore, taking this tendency into consideration, some music distribution sites feature a list of top ten or more songs on the latest hit charts on the web.
As prior art for downloading the latest hit music, an information distribution system and a reception apparatus are disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H11-150517. According to this system, distribution list information (hit charts list), including next distribution list information, is transmitted, along with music data, by a distribution center to a reception site, and at the reception site, a determination is made, based on the distribution list information, as to which music data should be downloaded. When the music data that is selected in this manner corresponds to songs included in the next distribution list information, at the reception site a reception waiting state is assumed, and no request is transmitted the distribution center.
Further, an also well known technique is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H11-312175. According to this technique, instead of downloading music data directly to a user terminal, only the information that is required for downloading to be performed is received from a music distribution server and is stored on a recording medium, such as an MD (mini disk). Subsequently, after the recording medium has been loaded into an information terminal set up in a CD shop or a convenience store and a predetermined fee has been paid, music data corresponding to the information stored on the recording medium is downloaded from the music distribution server.
Conventionally, to download music listed on the latest hit charts, a user would first identify songs that are ranked at the higher places, e.g., top ten songs, on the Web of a music distribution site, and then select a song or songs that have been newly added to the top ten list and downloads them. However, it would be troublesome for a user to check what songs are listed on the hit charts each time the user downloads a song or songs. Further, even after new song has been downloaded, if a user desires to sequentially play back, in order, the top ten songs on the hit charts, the user would have to change the music playback order, or if it is troublesome, the user would have to download the top ten songs every week.